Episode 027: Stories from Jenin with Jon Elmer

This week Lara and Michael speak with Jon Elmer, Canadian writer and photojournalist specializing in the Middle East and Canadian foreign and military policy. He has lived in and reported extensively from the occupied Palestinian West Bank and Gaza - specifically based in occupied Jenin, Bethlehem, and Gaza City. He has covered the al-Aqsa intifada, the so-called Israeli "disengagement" of Gaza which was followed by the imposition of a siege on Gaza as well as factional strife in Gaza. His work appears in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Le Monde diplomatique, and The Progressive. He is also the co-host of an amazing podcast called “The Brief” with Nora Barrows Friedman, a dear friend of the Palestine Pod. In light of the recent 21st anniversary of the Second Intifada, Jon speaks to us about his time reporting on the Second Intifada while he was in Palestine. With first-hand accounts from occupied Jenin, to analysis on the tactics used by Palestinians to resist Israeli colonial violence as well as the impact of the Second Intifada on Palestinian life until today, Jon paints a complex, layered picture of life in occupied Palestine, the cost of resistance to daily life, and the bravery and heroism of Palestinians fighting for their freedom. Lara reminds us that Palestinians are in a rights-based struggle and Michael recalls that Jews of the Warsaw ghetto used similar tactics of resistance as Palestinians, calling anyone who supports the former but not the latter fundamentally inconsistent in their approach to the right to freedom.

To consult the sources used in the preparation of this episode, please see:

Books/Videos:

1. Jon Elmer articles and book chapters

2. Palestine: Remembering the Second Intifada, by Jon Elmer (originally published in Al Jazeera)

Articles:

1. Palestinian Intifada: How Israel orchestrated a bloody takeover (Al Jazeera)

2. Putting Gaza in ‘Formaldehyde’: Israel’s ‘Disengagement,’ A Decade Later (Institute for Middle East Understanding)

3. 15 Years of Separation: The Palestinians Cut Off From Jerusalem by the Wall (Haaretz)

4. Palestinian Ghettos Were Always the Plan (Haaretz)

5. The Separation Barrier (B'Tselem)

6. A Nightmare Peace: Destroying the Basis of a Palestinian State (Palestine Israel Journal)

7. Remembering Israel's "disengagement" from Gaza (Middle East Monitor)

8. Why is Israel pulling out settlers from Gaza, West Bank? (Reliefweb)

9. West Bank Curfews (Middle East Research and Information Project)

10. Jenin Camp (UNWRA)

11. Abu Dis (Palestinian village cut off from Jerusalem) (CADFA)

12. Gaza under siege (American Friends Service Committee)

13. Israel’s Bombardment Of Gaza: Methods, Weapons And Impact (Forbes)

14. 1982 General Assembly affirmation of the right to armed struggle in Resolution 37/43 (United Nations)

15. Hanadi Jaradat: Suicide Bomber Strikes Haifa Restaurant (Center for Israeli Education)

16. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon addresses the nation on the day of the implementation of the Disengagement Plan (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

17. Inside the Israeli military's social media squad (Fast Company)

18. Hostage to Hamas: Gilad Shalit's five-year ordeal (France 24)

19. Israel's "tunnel rats" brace for new guerrilla war (Reuters)

20. Holocaust survivors describe the last months in the Warsaw Ghetto (Voices from the Inferno)

21. Assassinations, Terror Attacks and Even Castration – the Hidden Actions of Israel's Pre-state Militia (Haaretz)

22. How does the world feel about Israel/Palestine? (Vox)

23. BDS: inspired by the successful boycott and isolation of apartheid South Africa (BDS South Africa)

24. Frustrated Abbas gives Israel ultimatum in harsh UN address (AP News)

25. Zakaria Zubeidi Was an Intifada Symbol. This Week, He Became Israel's Most Wanted Fugitive (Haaretz)

26. UN Council: Israel Intentionally Shot Children and Journalists in Gaza (Haaretz)